Super Bowl Advertising the New Player of the Game

Super Bowl advertising spots, the most coveted commercial slots in the advertising business, are now costing $2.6 million to display a 30 second commercial.

Ninety million football fans tuning into the championship game have made the 60 commercial spots available during the Super Bowl prime real estate for companies promoting their products. The enormous market and limited slots have increased the price for ads at rates much higher than inflation. Minute-long commercial slots were a fraction of the cost at the first World Championship Game, costing a mere $75,000.

With continuing media fragmentation, the Super Bowl is now streamed live on the internet, making it available to even more people and making it more appealing to advertisers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigated how this year's Super Bowl advertisers reached out to their consumers to help them create memorable commercials. For instance, Chevrolet held a student-designed ad contest and will be running the winning commercials during the game.